How to get started for a noob?

[Wertoret]

Unlike other RPG's where you are taken by the hand and basically force fed specific areas while other zones are locked out, Fallout New Vegas is a free form game. Do what you want. Wander around and explore ... the story will unfold as you play at your pace :thumbsup:

 

FTFY

[Feltmarskal]

Thanks for the nice replies everybody. It seems like after sometime i gotten pretty much into it, by studying the quest on the fallout wiki and running around the Mojave. :)

[Yukichigai]

A few tips I'd like to add that haven't been covered:

 

- The Survival skill basically is the counter to the Medicine skill. With a high survival skill you'll craft so many high-healing food items you will never use stimpaks. It takes constant gathering and harvesting, but it'll net you things that (for example) heal 16 HP/s for 15 seconds.

 

- Weapons you give to companions don't degrade nearly as fast as they do when you use them. Surplus ammo is great for companions because of this, since the increased weapon degredation doesn't kill the weapon anywhere near as quick as it should. I usually give my companions something like a Marksman Carbine and 1500+ rounds of Surplus 5.56mm, which turns them into the best backup you could ask for.

 

- IF YOU EVER SEE .45-70 GOV'T NON-HOLLOW POINT ROUNDS BUY THEM IMMEDIATELY. The ammunition is incredibly rare, even at high levels, and it's used by the most powerful bullet-based handgun in the entire game. You will thank yourself for buying them once you finally get the weapon.

 

And here are a crap-ton of tips about money:

 

- Caravan is ridiculously easy to win at right now because you can play "modifier" cards on your opponent's cards. Opponent close to winning? Remove a high-value card with a Jack, or double one with a King.

 

- With the Repair skill you can make a good deal of money repairing weapons and selling them. The break-even point varies by weapon, but above 65 it generally becomes very profitable to repair weapons instead of selling them individually. Add in the Jury Rigging perk and you can rake in the cash repairing (example) 2000-cap value 10mm SMGs with 100-cap value 9mm pistols.

 

- With the Science skill you can craft Weapon Repair Kits using commonly found materials. Even if you have to buy the items you're looking at only 30-90 caps worth of material. When you use that Weapon Repair Kit on something like a Tri-Beam Laser Rifle, boosting its value by 1,500+ caps, that's money well spent. If you decide to go this route keep an eye out for wrenches, duct tape, and scrap electronics, which are the parts I occasionally run low on (wrenches in particular).

 

- The Survival skill lets you tan Gecko Hides (of varying types) which you can sell for a tidy sum. Unfortunately you'll usually be running low on White Horsenettle but have tons of everything else needed. The amount of money you can make doing this isn't much compared to the other methods, but a Tanned Golden Gecko Hide is still valued at 500 caps.

 

- Remember that there are three forms of currency in the game. NCR and Legion money IS NOT affected by your Barter skill; $100 NCR is always worth 40 caps, a Legion Denarius always worth 4 caps, etc. If you're running low on caps make sure that you don't have 20-some-odd $20 NCR bills sitting in your inventory waiting to be spent.